Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being refracted: as, the refractive violet rays.
  • Of or pertaining to refraction; serving or having power to refract or turn from a direct course.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Serving or having power to refract, or turn from a direct course; pertaining to refraction
  • adjective (Opt.) See Index of refraction, under Index.
  • adjective (Opt.) the index of refraction of a substances when the ray passes into it from a vacuum.
  • adjective (Opt.) the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction for a ray passing out of one of the media into the other.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Describing that which refracts.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or capable of refraction
  • adjective capable of changing the direction (of a light or sound wave)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

refract +‎ -ive

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